AEOLIA

I have been reading album reviews on Progarchives (my first choice source for music reviews) for many years, and I have finally decided to start writing my own reviews. I am from Norway, so it was easy for me to select a Norwegian band for my first review.

I listened almost only to metal before I slowly got interested in progressive rock in the late 90s (Opeth the main reason may be?). As I still listen to a lot of metal, Leprous is for me almost the perfect mix of metal and prog rock. The only negative I can find about their debut album Aeolia is that the production could have been better.

This album is different from everything else I have listened to (except later albums from same band). It's very hard to define, the basic is much like traditional heavy metal (Iron Maiden), but it's spiced with playful, slower and jazzy piano passages and mixed use of clean and growl vocals (it sometimes reminds me of Australian band Vicious Hairy Mary and their album Orchestra Phantasma). The vocals are very good on this album, but the lead vocalist Einar Solberg has improved a lot since 2006 ? I think he's got one the best voices in the metal genre.

What makes this album (and band) unique? The variation in the whole album, the melodies are very good, and the complexity makes it an album you will never get tired of. Apart from Iron Maiden's debut album (one of my favorite album of all time) you will not find many debut albums better than this one!

9/10 points ? rounded up to 5 stars.